Dispatches from California Institute of Integral Studies.

January 09, 2013

The Art of Seeing Differently

By MAIA SCOTT

This
post was written as an assignment for Professor Cindy Shearer’s CIA 7091: MFA Interdisciplinary Arts Workshop. As part of a community of artists
working across art perspectives, students in this course get the chance to
present their work and teach each other about their art form(s), practice,
lineage and influences, and are challenged to inquire into the
interdisciplinary arts as well as forms new to them.

During a recent visit to Yosemite, I turned off the road to encounter… a lovely figure with up stretched arms, or a stumpy old tree? My love of dance, ritual, and spirit made that answer pretty obvious. And the camera and paints did tell the same tale of her quiet dance in the woods. (Photograph and painting by Maia Scott)

Color, shape, and movement play an important
role in my creative process. I am also
visually impaired, somewhere in the no-mans-land between “Legally Blind” and
“Totally Blind." I count on a guide dog
to help me stay safe. Yet, I appreciate
a good art exhibit or dance performance as much as the next arts
enthusiast. Early on, I learned not to
count on sighted people to describe for me cold, hard facts about what they’re
seeing at shows and exhibits. I went
through an exhibit several times; once with a family member, docent, work
friends, and audio guide. Each pointed
out to me different elements of the works, causing me to “See” the collection
as if from each of their points of view. In this, I discovered that our vision, like many other aspects of life,
is subjective; and everyone (including me) sees things differently.

Remember sprawling in the fragrant summer
grass looking up and identifying pictures in the clouds? Or, how about
gazing at a cracked wall long enough that it reveals hidden images? And
then there are such magical places as the North Bay’s Mount Tamalpias that
turns out to be a sleeping princess when you stop to admire her quiet presence.

When I go hiking, I am rewarded with scene-scapes
that are reminiscent of Monet’s impressions of his surroundings. And an
evening at the ballet offers up a living Degas painting, complete with soft
edges and supposed depth of space. Riding the underground during commute
time feels like a Salvador Dali painting choreographed for the Rockettes.

As a partially sighted visual artist and
performer life is rarely mundane. Color and motion conspire to provide me
with randomly helpful cues to my surroundings, while simultaneously stirring up
bits of fantasy to tempt my every creative whim. The beauty of my limited
sight is just that. Do I feel like playing with shadow or light
today? I’m going to notice everything that goes up… or sparkles… or
swirls like a dervish of crunchy leaves.

Life, art, and seeing hold similar
properties; For certain, they are all open to interpretation. As one who
could easily talk to a mailbox, recycle the rent check, and proudly slam-dunk
an empty bottle into an old lady’s lap while waiting for the bus to take me to
work, I am well aware of how much I rely upon the art of interpretation and
filling in the blanks on the fly. Seeing with my other senses, including
intuition, along with canine (guide dog) sensibility provide me with a greater
part of that which informs my art processes – and just what I need for a
graceful exit stage left should the above scenario occur.

Picasso claimed it took him twenty-five years
to relearn how to paint like a child again.
Surprisingly, I found the most useful wisdom about seeing in art
class. For instance, I learned what it
is to see in three dimensions as my sighted, fellow students learned how to
interpret their vision into two dimensions. It has been a life-long
challenge to muster the courage to create like a partially sighted person. Slowly, I see with greater and greater
clarity there is more to seeing than meets the eye.

THE ART OF SEEING DIFFERENTLY

Experiment look through an assortment of items such as the following:

Poke a pin hole into a piece of cardboard.

Smear Vaseline or lip balm onto a clear container lid.

Find a piece of clothing through which you can see light.

Choose something you enjoy viewing and spend some time seeing it over and over again for the first time...

After seeing your world differently, ask yourself;

Did I focus on new or different aspects of things?

Did I move differently?

Did I automatically fill in the missing pieces or did I take things literally?

Does any of this parallel the way I interpret other perceptions of life as I “See” it?